Helping Young Children Succeed: Strategies to Promote Early Childhood Social and Emotional Development

This brief defines early childhood social-emotional development; describes what can happen when children face emotional and behavioral problems; and outlines what actions can be taken at the state level to support healthy social-emotional development in babies and young children.

Gaining social and emotional skills enables children to learn from teachers, make friends, express thoughts and feelings, and cope with frustration. These kinds of skills, in turn, directly influence cognitive learning such as early literacy, numeracy and language skills.

A child who cannot remain calm, focus on a task and stick with it will not be able to take advantage of an opportunity to interact with an adult who is reading her a story—an activity that effectively promotes early language and literacy skills. Learn how policies at the state level can support healthy social-emotional development in infants and toddlers.